The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1887-08-19

thSlt ROAD mas occu contIoueQ oy the
Vanderbilts, and they will tell you
that it has been ever depressing, and
is growing worse all of the time. And
it is safe TO say that no town is pros
pering in this. State today, or has
been able to build up manufacturing
industries along the roads of this SIS
tenn, outside the salt and lumber dis
lricts, where Competition with other
roads does not exist.
The truth is that we owe our pros
petty here in Owosso simply TO the
fact that we have competing lines OF
railway that enable US to profitably
engage in manufacturing. With only
one road for twenty years Owosso
was as dead as last years birds
nest. With three roads We have more
than doubled our population and
thribbled oEr industrial interests in
the five years last past. II is eompe-
nhon net combination among rail
roads that developes the business in
duslries Of the country. And if our
Lebanon fiierds desire to rebuild
heir manufacturing institutions so
recently destroyed by fire, and ir-
crease their wealth and general pros
peri'y, they want, according to the
experience of he west, railway f0ni-
petition, not combination. 1t does
not seem possible to us that the pros
peri!y Of New Hampshire can be
secured by putting the railway sys-
TEN Of the State into the hands of
gigantic, grasping, foreign monopoly.
Nor do We believe that the great
manufacturing industries Of New
Hampshire, in which as native CT
the State we take great pride, can
prosper in the future as they have in
the past should the Hazen bill be
come law, and the railo Of the
State under its provisions become a
part of the Boston and Maine system
"a system that is already SO power
full that it seeks to control even the
legislatures Of New England.
Bro. Cheney, we cannot help be
lieving that for the prosperity Of all
classes of the citizens Of New Hamp
shire, and especially for the develop
ment Of her great manufacturing in
dustries, and the protection of her
agricultural interests, the railway sys
TEN Of the State in the future, as so
far in the past II has been, should re-
main in the hands and under the con
troll of the people Of New Hampshire
In that system, and in that system
alone, is there safety for the Com
monwealth.
In another article the Free Press
seeks to show that the proposed com
bination OF the railroads in New
Hampshire with the Boston and
Maine system would reduce passen.
ger and freight rates to the people of
New Hampshire. How it might be
with passenger fare we cannot say,
but this we know, that combination
has not decreased them in Michigan.
1t is just as high today as it was IN
1916, and unless forced TO do SO by
legislation there does not seem to be
any prospect Of a reduction in the
future; and. as we personally know,
our local rates today are as high or
higher than they are in New Hamp
shire, yet, for forty one years we have
been, according TO the Free Press
logic, blessed with railroad combina-
tions. So far as the freight question
is concerned it certainly is safe 10
say there has been no reduction of
freight rates as the result Of comb.
nation in Michigan, and that the life
Of our industrial institutions, and
agricultural interests has been crush
ed out by the combination at all non
competing points. That the same
result would follow in New Hamp
shire we have not the least doubt